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I'd heard Higanbana wasn't that good, and sort of agreed from the first few chapters of the manga, but this patch made me changed my mind. Just finished the first chapter, and it was actually good. Not Umineko good, but still good.

I just finished the first chapter and God it was brilliant! R07 is such a genius writing emotional suspense-horror stories like this! the narration was flawless! I loved Kanamori's inner crazy monologues! and this is just the beggining I have 6 more stories to read! this is going to be awesome
Thank you so much for translating guys! I love you!

I'd like to know too, I'm kinda uncomfortable referring to you as "the Higanbana Ronove team"
Anyway, I saw you already started working on 第二夜. Not a moment of rest, have you? Good luck!!

I suppose it's confusing for people to know what they're supposed to call us. Ronove didn't want to reveal the name of our group until… well, I'm not even sure if it'll ever be revealed. For now, anyway, our group's name will remain sealed in a cat-box. But honestly, who cares? The truth isn't important.

Yeah, we've started work on The Second Night. Ronove is working hard on it now, although I suppose I don't have too much to do until more of the game is translated.

Yeah, I also finished the first story, and the youkai world logic is very reminiscent of umineko's fantasy layer, which I always liked: the descriptive narration has a knack for mixing and blurring reason and madness, reality and illusion. The old school building closed room, night dimension vs day time, transcending the human self, vessels, good stuff

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I must admit that I didn't really enjoy the manga, and yet I absolutely loved the visual novel. I may come across as biased, but I don't think it's a bad story by any means.

Totally agree, a more traditional horror with a 07th expansion style is no bad deal at all.

And that school bell bgm, eets paafekuto...

Spoiler for theory:

For now, I think the school nurse might actually be aware of the youkai realm and might've aided in higanbana's "baiting" of kanamori, participating as a vessel of sorts. Unless higanbana actually can influence the real world actively, by herself

Ok, I finished The Spirit Camera and wow.. just WOW! this story was beyond awesome!

Spoiler for The Spirit Camera:

It started more like a suspense themed story with all the 49th student stuff and Takeshi trying to find out the truth, and after Takeshi made Marie's mother remember her existence I though the story was pretty much over but THAT plot twist!! the fight between Higanbana and Headmaster was great and when Higanbana said that the `friend` she was taking revenge against wasn't Marie but Yoko I almost fell of my chair! the ending made me cry, it was so beatiful when they forgive each other and Yoko was released of her suffering, Higanbana was so evil in this story! she is like a witch! and Marie was so badass! her power is broken as hell! even if she is the 8th ranked Youkai she is probably the strongest (I don't know the other 4 though )

If the remaining 5 stories are in this level of epicness.. this is going to be the best read ever!! This night I'm going to read The Princess' Lie!

Just finished Chapter 2, and I must say I liked it a lot better than the first one. It was a very atmospheric chapter for the most part, and I guess it wouldn't be Ryukihsi without the

Spoiler for Chapter 2:

Youkai fight scenes, would it? Although, it kinda lost me at the whole YokoVSTakeshi thing, it kinda made things too silly. I mean, okay, he stalked her and made her a laughingstok for the entire class, but that's not nearly a good reason to commit suicide. Ryukishi does have this tendency to make a big deal out of teenager's problems and take them way out of proportion. Other than that, it was a very good chapter.

I'm really looking forward to the next one!

P.S: I noticed there was this '~' character in many spots where it just didn't seem fitting (usually it is used to make the spoken statement funny or 'moe') and I wonder, is that some error, or was it there in the original text as well?

P.S: I noticed there was this '~' character in many spots where it just didn't seem fitting (usually it is used to make the spoken statement funny or 'moe') and I wonder, is that some error, or was it there in the original text as well?

Hmmm…I'll look into that.

EDIT: Looks like we used a tilde in occasions where someone elongates their words, as well as where a tilde appears in the Japanese script.

I do agree that it looks a bit strange in some cases though, so maybe we should either represent the elongated sounds another way or just remove the tildes…

I finished The Princess' Lie last night and Damn! I definitely didn't see THIS coming..

Spoiler for The Princess' Lie:

The twist at the end was so unexpected for me! I still can't stop thinking about it.. The Black Tea Gentleman's power can be seen as blessing or as a curse at the same time.. poor Midori.. all the pain and bruises were caused because of the bullying of their classmates.. not a disease or a curse.. I think in her situation I would choose escape from reality too, even Marie didn't knew what to say when the truth was revealed, I definitely want to see more of The Black Tea Gentleman, he is such an interesting Youkai and he is not even ranked! I would love to see a team battle Black Tea Gentleman/Headmaster vs Higanbana/Marie! but I don't think that's gonna happen
Midori is already my favorite character, I feel so sorry for her.. I was in the drama club too! I love her passion (even if is just an illusion)

If I had to describe this story in a few words it would be 'a painful masterpiece'

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Originally Posted by Captain Bluebeard

Spoiler:

I mean, okay, he stalked her and made her a laughingstok for the entire class, but that's not nearly a good reason to commit suicide.

Spoiler for The Spirit Camera:

It wasn't just that, all the class started bullying after that, and her friends betray her and sided the bully side, the photos were just the begining, for a teenager bullying and having no friends can be the worst thing in the world and there are a lot of cases of kids commiting suicide because of it..

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I do agree that it looks a bit strange in some cases though, so maybe we should either represent the elongated sounds another way or just remove the tildes…

I like it because I know when I should elongate the words in my mind, I don't mind if you change it but don't remove them

It seems that he also released some photos (perhaps embarrassing photos) of her IIRC. So maybe that's the main catalyst for her to suicide?

Yeah, I get that.

Spoiler for Chapter 2:

I figured it would have to do with sexual content and harassment of that sort, which would be indeed very painful. Even so, it is still a kinda big stretch. I guess it's satisfying if we just stick with 'Higanbana led her to it', but I expected a better justificiation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yirba

Looks like we used a tilde in occasions where someone elongates their words, as well as where a tilde appears in the Japanese script.

I do agree that it looks a bit strange in some cases though, so maybe we should either represent the elongated sounds another way or just remove the tildes…

I got that it had such a use, it just looked a bit strange to the eye in some points, but that's maybe my fault for associating it with goofy lines (that's how it was mostly used in WH's patches).

I finished reading Shrine Of The Guardian Deity, this story was so short!
I enjoyed the easy going and somehow happy atmosphere of this story, it was a nice 'break', Michiru is so cute! I love twin tailed and eye patched girls! I want to see more of her! I imagine her voice like Tooru from A-Channel

Spoiler for Minor spoilers:

well, apparently the nurse has some kind of sixth sense like Michiru, she can't see the youkais but still can feel their emotions, I like her I hope she appears more often, Marie is such a lovable character, every chapter I like her more and more, it was so funny when Marie met Sakunoshin his personality is different than Sakutaro, Sakunoshin is more like a spoiled kid, he is very funny

While it may seem extreme to commit suicide because of being stalked and photographed, it's not. This happens in real life often, and I read a report once that suicide rates among school students is actually higher in Japan than anywhere else in the world. I think a lot of people don't see this bullying, so they don't understand that it actually does exist. I DO believe suicide is an extreme answer, but it's an extreme answer that many many teenagers use. From the 3 stories I've read so far about Higanbana, all 3 dealt majorly with bullying and the effects they have on the characters. In 2, the girl is completely isolated from her friends, had who knows what kind of pictures taken, and had to live in fear of being stalked. It's very easy to imagine her using suicide as an answer to escape the pain she felt. I don't agree with that answer necessarily, but I understand it.

Anyways, I want to give my thanks to Team Ronove (for lack of a better name) for translating Higanbana. So far, the 3 stories I've read have actually been great, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest =)

-Really good twists here, we were goaded into a complete storyline of truth only to switch to an alternate one with a 180 degrees different message of peace. Takeshi counting the students, the "forgotten" gap between photographs, the memory returning to marie's mom, many memorable scenes. I appreciate how the narrative can take mudane things, like finding a camera with film still in it, and bring out of it meanings that relate to us a humans, many lines that made me pause and think.

-Takeshi's alleyway meeting with the headmaster reminds one why this is a "sound novel", it's one of those scenes where you gotta imagine yourself in the protagonists shoes to get how eerie and creepy the scene is. And of course, magic battles

-Now we learn how youkai go about their business, their existence seems anchored in human thought, so by making souls enter certain states associated with the "tastes", they feast on them, but they can't be too flashy or people will escape their grasps.

-Just when I started thinking higanbana is kinda cool...

-Higanbana doesn't seem totally unrestrained when it comes to hunting, at least she has some sort of "friend" ethic it seems, although she's not a "good" youkai either, as expected from an illusive being, she's too flexible for human morality.

-Marie's relation with higan and her strength of character coupled with purity of outlook make her really endearing now, but if youkai live off souls, won't she lose power? I hope the integrity of their existence is upheld, but I think it might be circumvented for the sake of her character, unfortunately.

Spoiler for Princess Lie:

-The MC this time wasn't as interesting as before, however, the story relies mostly on the plot twist...too bad I spoiled myself here long ago so I saw it coming, but the way it was pulled of was very very well played. Of course it's no coincidence that a story about illusions made reality and playing "roles" uses a play called rokkenjima as a plot point.

-So that sprite of poor midori was used as an avatar already...just as planned.

Spoiler for Guardian Deity:

-This was a rather fun story, appropriately short. To think Dlanor would go from executing witches to pleading people to believe in the supernatural, oh wait, that was michiru, right I at least hope those girls would stop being rude after all that and not just use her blessings, use her up, then go back to the status quo. Then again, she'll have to stop throwing fire extinguishers from windows as a first step. Also, Sakunoshin!

Spoiler for Hameln's Castanets:

-Darkest, most violent and most brutal story so far. I think the essence of higanbana's "lesson" of what it means to kill is a translation in a horror/supernatural themed story of demonization. It is quite easy to shoot someone dead quickly with a gun, or to wipe out thousands with warfare weapons, especially when the opponent is demonized into a sub-human. As humans, perhaps we just don't have enough perception to understand the weight of life.

-But that "revenge"...must add higanbana to list of people not to tick off...

Spoiler for A girl's day:

-Yup, that was pretty cute and heartwarming. But to think that a simple small lie took all those potential days away.

Just one more to go, but this reading so far has been so much entertaining I gotta than spider lilly for their efforts all over again.